Central African Republic descends unchecked into hell

This is a real headline about a real situation in a real country.

That's how medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) describes the country that briefly dominated news in South Africa earlier this year. The CAR barely qualifies as a country. The descent into hell for many of the 4.5-million people living there is going almost unnoticed. The CAR already has the second lowest life expectancy in the world – 48 years. For years its infant mortality rate has been three times higher than the level used to define a humanitarian crisis. New figures present an even grimmer picture. This week, a group of five non­governmental organisations still operating there held a press conference to highlight the country's plight. Highlights from the list of what's gone wrong since the rebel group Seleka took over include a 40% increase in malaria cases this year; at least 70% of HIV-positive patients are no longer receiving their medication, and 50% of those suffering from TB are also no longer receiving treatment.

MSF says the United Nations has adopted a "wait and see" attitude. MSF president Mégo Terzian says the UN and other donor agencies are waiting for the situation to improve before deciding what to do next, adding that the UN Security Council isn't going to take any action until there's an African response to the crisis. Four months have elapsed since then-president François Bozizé was overthrown in a military coup by heavily armed Seleka rebels, led by the current president, Michel Djotodia. Since then, neither Djotodia nor the regional peace force, Fomac, have managed to disarm the rebels or stop them from looting and – far too often – killing civilians.

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On Monday, CAR Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye travelled to the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa to ask for help. AU commission head Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told him she was trying to convince member states to contribute troops to provide security in the CAR. Meanwhile, the new head of the UN observer mission in the CAR, General Babacar Gaye, arrived in Bangui on Tuesday. Gaye says he'll be meeting with politicians, members of civil society and regional partners in the next few days. That's what his predecessor, Margaret Vogt, had been doing for the past two years; that's what the previous UN observer mission had been doing since 2000; and that's what the previous peacekeeping mission had been doing before that. Locals can be forgiven if their expectations of a UN solution to their ­crisis are low to nonexistent.

The international community has largely turned its back on this poor landlocked nation "The entire population of 4.6 million people is affected by the crisis. Half of those are children," said Valerie Amos, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. "The humanitarian needs are huge and increasing, with 1.6 million people in need of assistance," she added. She has called for the international community to turn its attention to Central African Republic. The European Union has responded.

The United States needs to respond. Please sign the petition asking President Obama to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Central African Republic: wh.gov/la845

6. I care because I was there 35 years ago.

And I can't stop thinking about it. Maybe its impossible to care if you haven't seen people living in huts or sleeping out in the jungle who really live one day at a time and don't know where the next day's food is going to come from. But thousands edit: (no, millions) of people live this way and I really don't believe that their lives and the lives of the children living in Central African Republic are worth any less than those of children living in the USA.

Edit: Obama was in Africa last week with his family and he didn't say one word about Central African Republic.

4. There is no such thing as benign genocide.

7. Similar to the rubric "benign neglect"....

"A policy or attitude of ignoring a situation instead of assuming responsibility for managing or improving it"
dictionary definition

Benign neglect was a policy proposed in 1969 by New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who was at the time on Nixon's White House Staff as an urban affairs adviser. While serving in this capacity, he sent the President a memo suggesting, "The time may have come when the issue of race could benefit from a period of 'benign neglect.'

the policy was widely seen as an abandonment of urban neighborhoods (particularly black ones), as Moynihan's statements and writings appeared to encourage, for instance, fire departments engaging in triage to avoid engaging in a supposedly futile war against arson.

8. I knew what you meant.

I just hate it. Especially after hearing so much of the "never again" talk about the Jewish holocaust. It happens again and again all over the world and we just look away.

And Genocide Watch has named CAR as a place that is vulnerable:

The Red Cross reported on April 1, 2013, that 78 bodies had been found during the week after Djotodia came to power, and The Guardian reported that Djotodia used child soldiers who were killed during the coup. The Guardian documented first-hand accounts from eyewitnesses that Seleka child soldiers appeared to be drugged, and some were crying for their mothers before they were killed. Use of child soldiers is a war crime. South Africa – which had sent 298 soldiers to aid Bozizé’s government – lost thirteen men. The UN Security Council condemned Djotodia’s coup. The African Union sanctioned Seleka leaders and suspended the CAR’s participation in the African Union.

Genocide Watch has issued a Genocide Alert for the Central African Republic. Genocide Watch recommends that the follow actions be taken immediately:

The Central African Republic is a state-party to the Rome Treaty of the International Criminal Court. If Seleka leaders used child soldiers, they should be charged and tried by the ICC.
The Central African Republic should not be re-admitted into the African Union until it holds free and fair elections for public officials.
Uganda has withdrawn its forces from the Central African Republic in the hunt for Joseph Kony, who is believed to be hiding in the CAR. The UN should demand that the CAR cooperate fully in Kony’s capture for trial by the International Criminal Court.

9. ahhh...gotcha....

People are still protesting,even this year, for Turkey to recognize the Armeninan genocide, which has the dubious honor of being the first genocide of the 20th century.
When the Japanese did essentially the same thing, we called it the Bataan Death March and it went into history books.

Interestingly, Hitler used the silence over the genocide in his invasion of Poland:
" Who still talks nowadays about the Armenians?’"